How to Escape the Mount of a Much Larger Opponent

The mount is one of the most dominant positions in grappling. The reason for this is mostly because of what could happen if you got mounted in the street.

An attacker in the mount (aka the ‘schoolyard bully’ position) can rain down powerful punches into your face with virtual impunity.

If you try to punch back from the bottom of mount then your strikes probably won’t even reach his head. And even if your punches did connnect they still wouldn’t have any power (because unlike the guy on top, you wouldn’t have gravity or body mechanics on your side in this position).

The devastation that someone in mount can create IF THEY WERE STRIKING is the main reason why you get so many point for achieving the full mount in BJJ competition.

(Not to mention all the submissions and taking-the-back opportunities from there.)

Having a few ‘go-to’ escapes to quickly and efficiently get out of mount is certainly very useful if you grapple for fun. But if you’re at all worried about being able to handle yourself in a self defense context then bombproof mount escapes become downright critical!

The problem is that many commonly taught mount escapes work great if you’re roughly the same size as your opponent…

However if you’re stuck underneath someone much bigger than yourself then these same escapes might not work at all!

The time to deal with this is NOT when that 250 lb, Affliction-wearing, pitbull-owning steroid monkey is sitting on your chest and rearranging your face!

So learn some mount escapes that work regardless of size differences!

I’m going to give you a video of Emily Kwok’s favorite mount escape. Emily is 5′ 4″ and competes at 135 lbs. She’s a black belt world champion with the gi, but a few years ago she took first place at the Pan Am Jiu-Jitsu No Gi Championship IN THE OPEN DIVISION! Meaning there was no upper limit to the size of people she was fighting.

So you can be sure that her stuff works against bigger people.

If you’re looking for ‘size-proof’ techniques her videos are a great place to start. Watch the video below to learn how to escape the mount of a much larger opponent:

P.S. I’d watch Emily’s stuff even if you’re a bigger guy yourself… First of all, it’s often the case that bigger people can learn a lot from smaller people because they’re more technical… And secondly, even if you weigh 215 lbs like I do, what if you run into someone who weighs 240? 260? 290?